


The Start of Something New

by sutyinabox



Category: Defending Jacob (TV 2020), Defending Jacob - William Landay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:48:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24119788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sutyinabox/pseuds/sutyinabox
Summary: Laurie tells Andy that she's pregnant.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	The Start of Something New

Laurie turned the lock and opened the door just enough to poke her head in for a quick look. The apartment was quiet, dark, and most importantly, empty. He wasn’t home yet, and that was probably for the best. She stepped inside, switched on the kitchen light, and locked the door behind her. 

The items in her hand were dropped onto the counter. Keys, sunglasses, and the envelope- her chair hung on the back of the closest chair. The vibration of the phone was loud enough to be heard in the pocket of her coat, breaking the silence of the room. It was a text, from Andy, responding to her text from the car. 

‘ Leaving soon, sorry.’ She had asked when he was going to be home. 

Deep breaths, she told herself. She was told the same thing earlier. She took a few, then tried to put her head on straight. The oven was on pre-heat, and six and a half minutes later, a frozen pizza went in. 

‘ Gonna shower. Take the pizza out when you get in.’i

As chaotic as their schedules (mostly his) were, she was at least able to have a knack for knowing how long it would take him to leave the library. 

The shower was hot. She would have preferred a bath but was told those could no longer be nearly as hot as she wanted them. She stood directly under the spray for a few minutes, letting the water rush over her head and ears, drowning out everything else. 

Afterwards, Laura stood in the bathroom wrapped in a towel, and she could hear him in the kitchen. The bathroom was ensuite, but the apartment itself was teeny tiny- everything stacked on top of everything else. She dug through a pile of clothing on a chair in the bedroom- finding a pair of her shorts and his t-shirt. 

When she pulled up the shorts to her waist and rolled them a few times, she pressed her hand against the flat plain of her stomach. 

“ Hey, you,” she whispered. The little bud of life on the other side, who had been there the last eight weeks, but she only found out that day. All the symptoms were blamed on exhaustion and stress, but it was him all along. She tried to think of all that had happened in the last eight weeks, not knowing that he was there the whole time. 

The smell of the pizza from the others side of the bedroom door made her stomach growl. She yanked on a t-shirt and went after it. Andy was sitting oat the kitchen table, a textbook and a notepad opened. His brow was furrowed, and he looked like a dangerous mix of exhaustion and frustration. The pizza was cooling on the stove- directions had been followed. 

“ Hey hun,” he mumbled when the door opened. 

Laurie stood behind his chair and bent just enough to wrap her arms around his shoulders, and planted a kiss on his cheek. His hand came to rest with on hers- always a signal he used to ensure she knew his mood was in no regards to her, only that everything else got the best of him. She gave an extra squeeze. 

“ Do you have a lot work?”

Andy let out a long sigh, “ I still have two reviews to finish for the internship.”

She ran her fingers over his shoulders, feeling the tense muscles to give way just a little. 

“ Hungry?”

“ Not yet.”

Laurie cut herself two slices and plopped them on a plate, grabbed the folder from the counter, and sat down in the chair to his right. Two bites in and she pulled out the contents that she had brought home. There was a brochure talking about options hers was already made. Behind that, was the sonogram, the black and white picture of the smallest thing in the world. 

She looked up at Andy, who was now scratching as his scalp, flipping through the book. He was so stressed out, she saw it every day, and was only his second year. He would tell her that he was hard to love, but she never felt that way. He was working hard towards something, and he wasn’t going to be like this forever. 

“ Hey,” she nudged his knee with her foot, “ I have to talk to you about something. 

Andy’s pen came to a screeching, he looked up at her, and his face dropped. She smiled, or at least enough to keep him from tumbling over the edge. 

“ Please don’t,” he grumbled, pen dropping to the table top. 

“ Please don’t what?” 

He slouched a little in his chair. “ I know I’ve been a nightmare. I’m impossible to deal with and it’s not fair to you.” 

“ Oh gosh, no, Andy. I know you’re under a lot of pressure, it’s alright.” 

“ You’re the most important thing to me,” he dared to look at her, eyes pleading, “ I can’t be without you. I can be better, I really can.” 

Laurie gave him a warm smile, trying very hard to not make it look like he was teasing him. “ Do you think I’m...breaking up with you?”

“ Aren’t you?”

She seemed to have sighed and laughed at the same time, “ no, of course not!” She reached across the table to rest her hand on his, “ I’m pregnant.” 

Suddenly, he looked more panicked than he did when he thought she was dumping him. There was time allotted to him, as she had had a couple of hours to process the news. But then, it had been a few minutes, and he didn’t seem to have moved at all. 

“ Honey, please say something.” 

He immediately responded to the request, “ are you sure?”

Laurie retrieved the sonogram from her pile, “ pretty sure.” 

Andy held it out in front of him, pinched between both thumbs and forefingers. He studied it, carefully and quietly. The technician had labeled the little grey speck that was the actual baby, so he wasn’t going ot need help on that one. 

“ Six weeks,” he finally said, having read the age of gestation in the top left hand corner. “ Christmas?” he was now looking at her. 

Laurie nodded, confirming that six weeks ago was indeed Christmastime. And that six weeks ago they were indeed at his moms house, getting busy in the bathroom while the rest of the family celebrated. 

“ How did this happen? I mean...I know how it happened, but....how?”

“ We were being careful, but I think we can both admit that we weren’t that careful.” 

“ How long have you known?”

“ I’ve been suspicious for about a week or so. Actual confirmation was today.” 

He continued to look at the picture even if there wasn’t much to see. 

“ This isn’t something you have to be worried about if you don’t want to.”

“ What’d you mean?” his brows furrowed when he stared at her. 

Which suddenly made Laurie feel anxious that she brought that up so quickly. “ This wasn’t on our radar. We haven’t been together that long, you’re busy with school, we’re not married.

Andy took a few deep breaths, she could see the gears working themselves out in his head. “ It’s our baby,” he whispered. He rose to his feet, reached for her hands and gently pulled her up as well, holding her in a tight hug. Laurie relished in the embrace, a few tears sliding down her cheek and absorbing into the soft fabric of his shirt. There seem to have been a relief for both of them. 

Laurie’s hands moved to stroke the middle of his back, “ you’re going to be a great dad, don’t let yourself think anything different.” He tensed, she could feel it, “ you’re not going to be like him. Please know that.”

He held her tighter and kissed the top of her head. 

“ I can only hope so.”


End file.
